Garden

As the plane touched down on Burkina soil, I smile spread across my face. Even though I felt like it was 4:00am and I hadn't slept but four hours in the past twenty four hours of travel, I was excited to be in this place again. It becomes more and more familiar to me each time I land, yet each arrival is a new season of adventure and ministry. This is the home away from home that God has given me, and as Chris Tomlin sings, "The boundary lines have fallen in welcome places." 

The next day brought me to our small town, where a new house awaited me and my visitors for the next three weeks, Daniel and Rachel. We arrived late in the evening and opened the door to a house that still needed much work to be comfortable, but after plugging in the fridge, making the beds, and finally eating dinner around 9:00pm, all was well and we broke out the guitar and gave the house a proper initiation with our voices in songs of praise. May this place be a house of worship, prayer, ministry, and rest! 

Since that first day, we have already filled the house with laughter, singing, and good smells from the kitchen. Children have come inside to play. We have met some sweet neighbors, especially curious children. Friends have come to visit and welcome us. A sick child with his aunt and pastor came to be cared for and prayed over. This weekend, we even started a garden that will produce tomatoes, onions, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, squash, melons, and sweet potatoes! With the help of many African friends who all brought buckets and shovels to help, plus a load full of sheep manure and some handfuls of seeds from the market, we learned together how to plant a garden Africa-style. 

So many hands helped in the garden - hands of adults, children, Africans, and Americans. Some worked the hoe, others carried buckets, some spread out dirt with their own hands or picked out rocks. It was beautiful to see everyone working together to help us in our garden as we seek to serve and help them in their country. This is just another great picture of what life on mission is all about: being a family that works together and shares life together, using different gifts to accomplish a common goal. 

As I stare out the back window over the garden beds that will soon drink up the rain, I say a quiet prayer that this garden will reflect our lives here in Burkina. May we turn up the soil of hearts and plant seeds of the gospel every day in the people that we meet and touch. We will now trust God to send the rain and produce the fruit of righteousness and the kingdom of God. 

As the plants begin to sprout, so also may God bring new life to our ministry. As the plants grow, may our relationships grow as well. As the garden flourishes, may God's ministry here also flourish. And as the crops come in, may we also reap a spiritual harvest, and may the fruit feed many hungry hearts.